Grammar ~21 min of the core left

Say what you've got

After this lesson you can

I can say what I have got and haven't got, ask about the same, and name several things in the plural.

Start the lesson Core 19–21 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

4 min

1. have got — to own, to have.

I have got a car. → I've got a car. statement
She has got a dog. → She's got a dog. he, she, it → has
I haven't got a car. negative
Have you got a pet? — Yes, I have. / No, I haven't. question and short answers

With he, she, it — has; with all the others — have.

2. The plural: -s. a book → two books, a car → three cars. After -s, -x, -ch, -sh add -es: box → boxes, bus → buses.

3. Five words that change completely — learn them as words, not as a rule:

one many
child children
man men
woman women
foot feet
person people
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Common learner errors

written for your language
1

A missing -s after a number

✗ two book

✓ two books

Many languages don't change the noun after a number (Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Hungarian, Indonesian), so the English -s seems unnecessary. It is necessary: in English the plural is shown by the noun, not by the number.

2

The plural of irregular words

✗ childrens

✗ peoples

✗ mans

✓ children

people, men. These words are already plural. Learners with any first language apply the -s rule to them by mistake.

3

The negative

✗ I have not a car

✗ I no have a car

✓ I haven't got a car

I no have comes from languages that put "no" before the verb (Spanish No tengo coche, Portuguese Não tenho carro).

Pronunciation

4 min

The ending -s is read in three different ways, and the choice is not random.

Sound After what Examples
/s/ after voiceless sounds: p, t, k, f books, cats, cups
/z/ after voiced sounds and vowels dogs, cars, boys, friends
/ɪz/ after hissing and hushing sounds: s, z, ch, sh, x boxes, buses, watches

The rule is simpler than it looks: a voiced sound (your throat buzzes) brings a voiced sound after it.

written for your language

In German, Dutch, Polish and Turkish a voiced consonant at the end of a word becomes voiceless, so /s/ is said everywhere: dogs sounds like "docks". Spanish and Finnish have no /z/ sound at all. In English there is no such change, and the difference is heard.

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Text

3 min

I've got a big family. I've got two brothers and one sister. My sister has got a dog. Its name is Rex. We've got a small house in Italy. It's got four rooms. Have you got a pet?

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Gap fill.

  1. I a car
  2. She two cats
  3. We a small house
  4. He a big family
Show the answers
have got, has got, have got, has got.

2. Plurals.

Write the plural form. 1) book 2) box 3) child 4) car 5) woman 6) bus

Show the answers
books, boxes, children, cars, women, buses.

3. Matching.

  1. cats
  2. books
  3. dogs
  4. friends
  5. boxes
  6. buses
Show the answers
/s/ — cats, books; /z/ — dogs, friends; /ɪz/ — boxes, buses.

4. Negatives.

Make it negative: I've got a car.

Show the answers
I haven't got a car.
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Summary

Covered

  • have got in all its forms
  • the plural and the three ways to read -s
  • five irregular forms

Next — lesson 6: review of the first five lessons.

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 6

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

15 words
  • dog /dɒɡ/ an animal that barks
  • cat /kæt/ a small animal that says "miaow"
  • pet /pet/ an animal you keep at home
  • car /kɑː/ you drive it
  • house /haʊs/ a building where people live
  • room /ruːm/ a part of a house: kitchen, bedroom
  • book /bʊk/ you read it
  • bag /bæɡ/ you carry things in it
  • friend /frend/ a person you know well and like
  • man — men /mæn/ — /men/ an adult male — more than one
  • woman — women /ˈwʊmən/ — /ˈwɪmɪn/ an adult female — more than one
  • person — people /ˈpɜːsn/ — /ˈpiːpl/ one human — more than one
  • foot — feet /fʊt/ — /fiːt/ the part of the leg you stand on — both of them
  • small /smɔːl/ not big
  • four /fɔː/ 4

Writing

Four sentences about what you have got.

Example

I've got a small family. I've got one brother. My brother has got a dog. We've got a house in Rio de Janeiro.

Checklist

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Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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